Sweden election results: Is Europe seeing major nationalist surge?

EXCLUSIVE: THE Swedish Election 2018 saw significant gains made by the far-right, anti-immigrant party Sweden Democrats sending shock waves around the world - but is Europe seeing a major nationalist surge right now?

Sweden election was another example of populism sweeping through Europe (Image: GETTY)

Other right-wing parties have also made significant gains across European countries.

In Germany, the Alternative for Germany party entered into federal party last year after winning a 12.6 percent share of the vote.

Other gains were also made in France, Denmark and Hungary.

Carl Truedsson, an expert on Swedish politics based at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), said the Sweden Democrats far-right swing was an opportunity for dissatisfied voters to give the traditional parties “a bloody nose” and for them to “wake up”.

Sweden election 2018: Jimmie Akesson is the leader of the Sweden Democrats party (Image: GETTY)

He told Express.co.uk: “People feel like the country is going in the wrong direction: waiting times for healthcare are growing, gang-related violence in certain suburbs is on the rise and immigrants live on benefits and don’t contribute. And the politicians, they say, do nothing.”

Mr Truedsson said the Swedish Election 2018 result showed how the Sweden Democrats had been “notoriously underestimated” and were adept at listening to the concerns of voters - something which has been prevalent across Europe.

But he questioned “how much more ground nationalist parties such as the Swedish Democrats can gain”.

He said: Obviously, this depends heavily on where in Europe one looks.

Sweden election results breakdown (Image: EXPRESS)

“But from what I can tell, it is far from apparent that the majority of Europeans are against this openness.

“The 2015 refugee ‘crisis’ was an extraordinary moment that showed, amongst other things, that the European Union faces tremendous challenges in coordination and also in making sure that member states’ concerns are heard and taken seriously.”

In the case of Sweden, Mr Truedsson said core voting issues ofhealthcareand schooling remained key concerns of the electorate.

This perhaps explains why the Sweden Democrats fell far short of the 25percentof the vote they were expected to take.